Howl: A World at War Novel

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  “From what I've heard Ragnarok is beefing up their garrisons in the north,” Zach said.

  Anna confirmed that. “They have to guard against the possibility of a raid, even if it's miles behind the front line. That cuts their effective troop strength down by a lot.”

  “Still, they're hard fighters,” Selene said.

  “Yeah, Xavier and Javy said that they did a number on you all,” Danny said.

  “OK, so we know that we can pull off a raid as long as we're well coordinated. We've forced Ragnarok into a defensive position. What's our next move from here?” Zach asked.

  “We're going to let the main forces take over responsibilities in the north,” Anna said. “Our concern is in the south.”

  “How close are we to Indianapolis?” Nora asked.

  “Distance wise? We're very close,” Anna said. “We've taken all of the towns and outposts between there and Lerna. If you're talking about how close we are to actually being able to take Indianapolis, we're a long way out.”

  “How long are you talking?” Danny asked.

  “At least two months,” Liz said. “Maybe even more.”

  That certainly wasn't good. That would give Ragnarok enough time to recover and replenish their supplies. There was also no guarantee that they would be able to take the city even after two months. They would still suffer attrition against Ragnarok, and they had no idea what they were facing inside the walls. She voiced as much to the others.

  “First we have to scout the place, and that might be difficult,” Anna said. “If you think our walls are formidable, the ones around Indianapolis are even stronger. They're at least twenty feet high, and they're pretty thick as well.”

  “Do we even have anything that could damage them?” Nora asked.

  Anna shook her head. “We might as well be throwing rocks at them at this point.”

  “Could we use the helicopters to get inside the walls?” Danny asked.

  “That's assuming the garrison doesn't have antiaircraft guns,” Zach said. “And considering the size of the city the garrison has to be pretty large. Even if we bring in half the company we would need to immediately take a gate and pour in resources. And we'd have no margin for error.”

  “This is sounding an awful lot like the slaughters from the World Wars,” Nora commented.

  “Then the thing that's going to save us is good recon work,” Selene said. “There has to be a way into the city other than bashing down the walls. We just have to be able to find it.”

  “That's going to be extremely dangerous scouting,” Liz said. “It's going to be very tough to get inside the walls, and once we're inside the city is huge. There's going to be a lot of deaths trying to get the information we need.”

  “We'll need that information, though. That's the only way to make up for our lack of numbers,” Selene said.

  “I think we can do it,” Liz shrugged. “But I also think it's going to be very hard.”

  “First things first, we need to have a base to operate out of,” Nora said. “The biggest problem is that we don't have a place to launch our boats from. We haven't pushed far enough east to get to the reservoirs and rivers.”

  “We could take one of the towns on the White River. That would also put our choppers closer to the city,” Anna suggested.

  Selene saw Zach frown. “We could do that, but we would have to spend time taking the town,” he said. “That costs us time, and I'm not sure we have enough troops to spare to do it. I've talked to Cody, Bryce and Gina and they want to keep at least a platoon of us up in the north. And they want chopper support as well.”

  That was why Robbie wasn't with them right now. His wing of six attack helicopters was providing close air support to a push by the armored cavalry, although their value was much more psychological than physical at this point. In order to minimize the risk from enemy ground fire Robbie had ordered his pilots to fly low and fast when they attacked. Their attack runs could be hit or miss, but having something come out of nowhere to hit you from above was intimidating.

  Anna nodded. “Right, and that's a fair point. Ragnarok might have increased security up north, but we should still have some of us operating in small raiding teams. Even if we don't do any real damage it will keep them on their toes.”

  “Should we split duties between the north and south?” Zach asked.

  Anna ran a hand through her hair and gave a thoughtful look. “Honestly, I think we should split the company in two for now. I'll take two platoons and handle the south, and you take two platoons and handle the north.”

  “Who gets what is the next question,” Danny said.

  “No disrespect to Gray, but your platoon had the better fighters,” Anna said to Liz. “I think you should be in the north.”

  Zach made his own thoughtful look. “I'll put Danny in the north with me and have Selene handle the south.”

  “Any reason why?” Danny asked.

  “Have you watched yourself trying to sneak around?” Zach asked.

  Danny laughed. “Fair point. And tangling with Ragnarok's best sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun.”

  Selene was pleased with her assignment as well. Taking a city had been their top priority for months. The idea had predated the formation of the Hydra Alliance, in fact, and now it was finally in reach, distant as that might be. She wanted it to happen, and was now in a position to help push the process along.

  Not that there weren't going to be any challenges. There were, and they were going to be rough. As Anna had already mentioned, the city was surrounded by walls, except for some of the sides that bordered large bodies of water. That wasn't going to be easy either, because the beaches were probably heavily defended, and they could only bring limited fire support with them. The river craft would be helpful close to shore, but once they moved into the city they had nothing like the backup an assault gun could give them.

  The worst part was not knowing the forces that were against them. The NPCs in World at War had varying levels and intelligences. Outside of major settlements they tended to be low level and weak, with only their sheer numbers as a real advantage. The ones inside settlements were better, but they were still far behind the capabilities of even an average player. The only real trump cards they possessed were their bosses, like the armored vehicle they had run into taking Lerna. But reports were that troops from the larger cities were much tougher. They were better armed, fought with better tactics and acted smarter as well.

  The one good thing was that they were used to fighting tough troops while they were outnumbered. The problem was that they had never tried to attack a fortress with numerous, tough troops.

  This was going to be difficult, Selene realized.

  Knock, knock.

  “Selene, it's 4:30,” Miko's voice said, muffled by the door and her sleepy haze.

  “I'm up,” she groaned back. They were supposed to meet Nora, Anna and Liz in an hour, and she had napped longer than she had planned on. She rolled out of bed, stretched and got dressed.

  “How long were you on last night?” Miko asked as she exited her room.

  “Till around one,” Selene told her. “There was a lot of organizational stuff that needed to be done, and then I decided that I wanted to do a little bit of hunting.”

  “In the forest in the middle of the night? By yourself?” Miko asked.

  “It was pretty fun,” Selene said. “I got a pair of fen wolves.”

  “How many times did you die before then?” Miko asked.

  “I didn't,” Selene said.

  “Lucky break for you,” Miko shrugged. “Ready to go?”

  Selene headed toward the door and grabbed her jacket. “Let's go.”

  “Have fun hunting last night?” Anna asked as Selene and Miko took a seat at the table. Nora and Liz were already there as well.

  “Tons,” Selene said.

  “I'm honestly surprised that you didn't die a bunch of times,” Miko said.

  “I told he
r she was crazy, but she insisted,” Liz said.

  Selene nodded. “Not going to disagree with you there. But we've spent so much time going through all the bureaucracy and organization that it sometimes seems liked we've taken some of the fun out of the whole thing. Running through the woods in the middle of the night with a half dozen wolves chasing me just felt thrilling, you know?”

  “Well, this is also our job,” Nora said.

  Selene laughed. “I definitely can't complain about that.”

  “How does that work, being paid to study the game?” Anna asked.

  Selene leaned back in her chair. “Well, there's a lot of stuff that goes on. Most of our time is spent playing, but we also do a lot of interviews with the head of the whole research project. They're very big on societies in the game world and the like.”

  “What, the collection of warlords and armed gangs?” Liz said. “I mean, we might technically be a cartel, but the point's still the same.”

  “They seem to have much higher opinion about our motives than we do,” Nora agreed. “I think you're spot on. We're basically just heavily armed gangs fighting it out in a game world.”

  “Put that way it sounds pretty bad,” Anna said.

  “Maybe not,” Miko said. “It's not like it's a psychopath training simulator. It's probably nothing more than just a very realistic power fantasy. I have to admit, assassinating people is a lot of fun, but it's not like I'm going to start hunting down people in the real world.”

  “You know some idiot pundit is going to go on a diatribe about how the whole thing is a brainwashing tool and is turning us into mindless killers,” Nora said.

  “With the charts and flawed research and all?” Selene added.

  “Not to mention ignoring all the research that contradicts it,” Anna said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

  “Sore topic?” Selene asked her.

  “It's just a pet peeve of mine,” Anna said. “People using flawed methodology really, really annoys me. Plus, a lot of people tend to believe what they're told, even if it's stretching the truth.”

  “I feel you,” Selene said. That made sense. Anna was a research assistant who had majored in psychology.

  “As much as I hate to say it, some people might have a point, though,” Nora said. “It's not nearly as extreme as people make it out to be, but I do think the game affects us in subtle ways. I've noticed that my reaction times have gotten a lot faster.”

  “But we're not all psychos because of the game,” Selene said. “It's just a place where we can go to have fun.”

  “Oh, I definitely think that's true,” Nora agreed. “I talked about it a lot with Zach. I think that the game is influencing us neurologically. But I think that the amount it influences us psychologically is affected by how well anchored we are in the real world.”

  “So you think we're just fine as is?” Miko asked.

  Nora nodded. “Yeah. I think that it only really affects people who already have a tenuous grip on reality. The vast majority of people are fine.”

  “Makes sense,” Liz said.

  “Then again, we're dealing with uncharted territory here,” Anna said. “What you said supports the prevailing theory about games. Heck, I'd go as far as to say that it's proven fact at this point. But then again, there's not a lot of data on true virtual reality games. And there's no data on a virtual world game.”

  “That's true,” Nora admitted. “I mean, that is the reason we're studying the whole thing.”

  “I still think that you're capable of figuring out what's real and what isn't,” Liz said. “Like, we know how things are supposed to work in real life. And when they don't quite match up it's pretty easy to spot the difference.”

  “Kind of like the uncanny valley?” Anna asked.

  “Yeah, like that, but without the creepiness factor,” Liz said. “It's not like it creeps you out or anything, but you can tell it's not really real, if that makes any sense.”

  “Like being able to tell the difference in taste between a natural and artificial sweetener?” Miko asked.

  “Yeah, exactly. The fake one isn't bad, it's just that you can tell it's different.”

  “The fake one in your example also gives you cancer, so I'm not sure that's the best analogy,” Selene said.

  Liz smiled and shook her head. “You know what I mean.”

  “Oh, no. I definitely get that, and I think you're right.”

  “I think so to,” Nora said. “The only thing that stops it from going into the uncanny valley is the fact that there's people in it. They're the ones that add quirks and personality into the world.”

  “Half our adventures came about because we're all maniacs,” Miko agreed.

  “I guess that people are what make it a world,” Selene said. “Without them it would be pretty empty otherwise.”

  Selene had forgotten why she hated bowling. Now she remembered exactly why. Yet another ball careened to the left. She managed to get three pins.

  “Am I hallucinating this?” Miko asked as she sat back down beside her.

  “Gah. Bowling was one of the only sports that I wasn't good at,” Selene said. “I just can't get the ball on target for whatever reason.”

  “Well, at least you can hit some of the pins,” Liz commented as they watched Anna go. The ball barely made it half way down the lane before it went into a gutter. She and Selene were running neck and neck for last place.

  “Well, you can always drink more and see if that helps your equilibrium,” Nora said. “At least that's the highly questionable advice some family members have given me.”

  “Does it work?” Liz asked.

  “Haven't tried it, but pretty sure that the answer to that is no,” Nora said. “Not that I'd really take advice from some of them.”

  “You'd be much happier even if you are still missing,” Miko said with a laugh.

  “Of course you would say that,” Selene said.

  “What can I say?” Miko shrugged.

  “Wonder what the rest of the guys are doing,” Selene said.

  “They're at another Cubs game,” Nora said. “Still clinging to the hope that they might be able to sneak into the playoffs. Of course, they're playing St. Louis.”

  “Yeesh. It wouldn't even be worth going to the game if they gave away the beer for free,” Selene said.

  “This is when being a Yankees fan pays off,” Miko said.

  “Bandwagoner,” Selene said.

  “Hey, I'm actually from New York.”

  Liz looked up and watched Anna throw her second ball. She managed to hit several pins this time. “Well, that's an improvement, at least.”

  Miko stood up. “My turn. I'll try not to smoke you guys too badly.”

  “Oh just go. You've been hanging around Selene too long,” Nora said with a grin. She and Miko were battling it out for the lead. Liz was having a middling but respectable showing, while Selene and Anna were trying to stay out of last place.

  “You got six on the second ball,” Liz commented.

  “Yeah, I'm slowly but steadily improving,” Anna said.

  “Better than me,” Selene said. “Maybe I should take that bit of advice.”

  “What advice?” Anna asked.

  “Drink a lot,” Nora said.

  “Not sure that's the best bit of advice, but OK,” Anna said.

  Selene leaned back and sighed. “How long has it been since we spent an evening outside of the game world?”

  “Jeeze, must have been a week and a half,” Nora said. “That sounds pretty bad once you think about it.”

  “No worse than watching TV every night,” Liz said. “I mean, we're actually doing something.”

  “Technically we're doing the same thing as someone watching TV. We're sitting there and observing. The difference is just in the sense of how immersed you are in what you're seeing,” Anna said.

  “Yeah, but at the same time we've actually built something, even though it's in a virtual world.”<
br />
  “You sound like you're taking pointers from Danny,” Selene said.

  “It's a valid point, though,” Nora said, standing up. “And I guess it's my turn to go.”

  The rest of them watched her go. She threw a hard ball down the center of the lane and hit the foremost pin right on the nose. Strike.

  “Man,” Miko said.

  “Oh gosh, I feel so bad for you,” Selene said sarcastically.

  “Right, so where were we?” Nora asked as she came back. Liz got up for her turn.

  “The value of stuff in a virtual world?” Anna said.

  “Oh, that,” Miko said. “Are we talking about the argument that things in a virtual world have less meaning than something in the real world?”

  “Yeah, that,” Selene said. “Not an easy topic to define.”

  “Well, I think it's pretty simple,” Miko shrugged. “Things have a value that we assign them. Why's gold worth anything? It's just a pretty rock.”

  “Put that way, I guess we really can't feel weird about spending a lot of our time in the game world,” Nora said. “I enjoy the time I spend there a lot, and I guess that's what's important.”

  “At the same time, we can't stay in there all the time. You need some variation sometime,” Selene said.

  “Definitely,” Nora said.

  “Variety is the spice of life,” Anna added.

  Miko snickered. “There has to be times you lose at something.”

  Selene scowled with an air of mock-offense. She got up to take her turn. “Yeah, yeah, enjoy your victory.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Valkyrie

  “I hear the game went poorly,” Liz said through the radio link. She was sitting on the starboard bench seat. Zach occupied the port one, while the helicopter cabin was occupied by two pilots from Raven, Rielle and Cole.

  “That would be an understatement,” Zach said. “The worst part was the game was tied going into the seventh inning. Then the bullpen imploded again and they gave up seven runs.”